TLAC 2 Review

Sunday June 22, 2008
Sowela put on another first class event for TLAC 2. Everything was on schedule and the course was extremely challenging. The grid was pretty tight, especially for the 2-driver cars, but it worked out fine. This review is based on preliminary results.

The Super Stock Battle:
SS saw a refreshing 5 entries: Brian Harper and I in his Elise, Keith Wicker (Elise), Phillip Miller (Elise), and Jeff Hoffman (C5).

We ran in the first heat of the day, and the course was dirty, not to mention far tighter than most thought when they walked it. Stock and Street Prepared ran in that heat, and I managed a 58.5 with plenty of downshifting to first gear in Brian Harper’s Elise (5 times). The dirt and sand on the course aggravated the slight understeer, and after I saw the apexes at speed, I needed to work on my shift points. I also needed to change my turn-in behavior to be a bit slower and earlier, to soften the understeer with more gradual weight transfer. Brian DNF’d his first run at TLAC1 in Shreveport, so he concentrated on a slower navigational run. His first run was a 62.3, with no cones or DNF. Wicker put down a solid 59.5.
Second runs: I don’t know what I was thinking, but I didn’t do any of the things I told myself after the first run. I turned late and plowed past most of the critical apexes. Everything I did was late, mainly because of more aggressive throttle and speed. I’d have to think a little faster to keep up. This was especially true at the lane change, where I got so late that I had the choice of wiping out 4 cones or taking a DNF. Being the co-driver, I opted for the DNF, but by then I had already slowed to below a proper course speed at that section. The run was useless, but still registered a 58.1: a good sign that there was a lot more time left. Brian got more aggressive and cut down to a 60.0. Keith’s second run didn’t net any improvement (59.6), despite looking a whole lot smoother.
Third runs: I looked and planned further ahead, adjusting to the speed. My 3rd run didn’t have any major mistakes. I was close on all my apexes. Turn-in was better, and I was feeling good about the car position. That rewarded me with a solid 57.5 second pass. Tim Dorman in the ASP C5 put down a solid 57.6 after being off-pace in the morning: he’s always a good benchmark for FTDD, so I was in good company. Brian lost his rhythm after the break and rolled in a 61.0, while Keith knocked off time for a 59.1 second run.
Fourth runs: I reminded myself to do more of everything: carry a little more speed at the apexes, get on the gas a little sooner, and lift less when I’m going into fast sweepers. I also tried to get a bit closer to the key cones on the slow apexes that everyone seems to be missing. That was good for a 57.1, with a particularly tight line on the exit of the last turn. Brian found his way again, and put in a solid improvement to 59.0, pulling ahead of Keith by a tenth of a second. Wicker responded to the pressure with a 58.5 second run.
Fifth and final runs: at this point, I had a solid lead in both Super Stock and FTDD, so I decided to go ballistic on my last run. I’ve always kept a bit of room around the cones to clear the Elise’s wide hips, so I opted to get a bit closer on the higher speed apexes. Clipping cones at this point would be fine if I learned a few limits. I also had two sections where I think I was being conservation in my entry speed to prevent getting tail-happy on a sharp turn in. The entry into the option slalom was where I would lift and brake a bit too much to make the left hand sweeper. This was an area the Matt Lawrence really beat me badly in a few Delta events ago. It was mainly mental, and I just need to apex faster and trust the grip on the exit. At the end of the slalom, I was also slowing down too much for the lane-changes, fearful that I’ve get late from too much speed. Again, another mental block. I needed to trust the grip here too, and look ahead to stay in position on the lane changes. Brian has also kicked my butt in the slaloms, so I wanted to run these with more constant-speed rhythm in the wheel that allows him to make up so much time over my point-and-shoot slaloms. My 5th run went beautifully: I was picking up a bit more speed by going tighter in the slaloms and lane changes: shaving off a few more inches gave me more room to accelerate and brake between the apexes. Smoother turn-in and aggressive cornering loads the the faster sweepers also kept my momentum up. Well, up until the last turn. I went in tight, but I braked to deep and pushed out a full car width at the apex with brutal understeer. The front bit back in but the damage was done: I was an entire car width off at the exit and my heading was 10 degrees too far left. Thankfully, Brian’s video camera wasn’t recording and didn’t catch the bad words leaving my mouth. As I exited the course, I looked back at Keith, who had been lingering at the timer display. He once again gave me a thumbs up (actually, it was his middle finger that was up). As I learned from previous runs, this was Keith’s signal that I improved my time. Still upset from the final mistake, it didn’t register until later that the 56.7 second pass was one of my best TLAC finishes. Tim didn’t improve their 57.6, and a few other drivers were getting into the high 57.X range, but my last run was good for strong FTDD.
The battle for second place SS was only getting better: Brian knocked off another big chunk of time for a 58.459 to jump ahead of Keith before his final run. With the pressure on now, Wicker picked up a few more 10ths to regain 2nd place at 58.205 seconds. This is a repeat of TLAC1 where Keith was a couple tenths ahead of Brian. Phillip Miller finished with a 60.048 in his yellow Elise, and Jeff Hoffman drove his Corvette to a 63.528 run.

B-Stock went to Bill Brown (S) unchallenged, turning a 64.679 in his BMW Z3. Tony Shepherd (D) was also unopposed in his C-Stock Miata with a solid 60.401. Brett Mount (D, 61.357, MS3) beat out Brian Berger (S, 64.134 330ci) the the D-Stock win, while Paulette Leblanc (S, 330ci) took D-Stock Ladies with no opposition (66.109). E-Stock driver Mark Perkins (S) didn’t have anyone to run against either, but it really wouldn’t have mattered: his 59.777 run in his old Miata was unbeatable. F-Stock had Rick Bagnard running in his Camaro against himself, but his impressive 59.505 second run wasn’t going to be beaten anyway. Jarrad Rolon (Cenla) and his RSX became another victim of a Jeff Schaadt/MCS beat down (58.023 vs 63.152) in G-Stock. Jean Schaadt (RRR) won GSL unchallenged with a 60.655. H-Stock had two drivers in Mazda 3s, with Cenla’s Greg Wiley (61.777) inning over Richmond Cole (67.256).

ASP went to Tim Dorman (57.600) over Chris Dorman (59.155), both co-driving the family Corvette for RRR points. Three drivers in BSP competed, with the top time going to Max Bales (59.432, STI) followed by Jim Veillon (60.913, Evo) and Richard Dorman (71.244, Corvette). CSP had an impressive 8 Miata drivers, dominated by Stefan Waller’s (S) 57.592 run, second fastest of the doored cars. He was distantly followed by Matt Lawrence (S, 58.512), Darren Darby (D, 59.147), Don Breaux (S, 59.455), Chuck Waller (S, 59.775), Mitchell Mark (D, 60.151), Robert Suydam (S, 68.216), and Josh Copeland (69.503). Lisa Lawrence (S) competed alone in CSPL with an strong 59.912 run. Chris Carver (C, 60.775) beat out his co-driver John Smith (C, 62.660) for the win in DSP. Both drove the CCM 240SX. Damon Cuccia (D) was alone in ESP (60.064, Mustang Cobra). Jim Ely’s (S) ever-present orange Civic went unchallenged in FSP (64.848).

The Prepared classes were pretty sparse, with Sowela’s usual Prepared Corvette drives notably absent. X-Prepared had one driver, Brian Stelly, running is flat black Honda Civic to a 59.152. The Civic was co-driven by Kassie Stelly in XPL (64.073). D-Prepared had Justin Dubois (R, 59.181) winning over Josh Guillot (63.421), co-driving Justin’s 10AE Miata. Bob Evenson (R, Datsun 510, 58.329) took EP as usual, and John Lieberman (R, 62.800) took GP with his real Mini.

The Modified classes saw quite a few open wheel cars. B-Modified was quite large with six drivers. Chris Moulckers (Legrand DSR) won with a stunning 54.325, followed by Shea Fogleman (R, Lola SV, 54.698). Third place end to Mike Moulckers (Legrand DSR, 55.894), followed by Leon Ledoux (Rondeau FF2, 55.956), David Fogleman (Lola SV, 56.019), and Paul Gary (Rondeau FF2, 60.629). Rob Snider (Van Diemen FF, 54.747) won C-Modified, follows by Jeremy Suydam (Royale FF, 59.772) and Andy Snider (Van Diemen FF, 71.839. E-Modified was won my Jason Yenzer in a gorgeous Lotus 7 (57.886)

Zachary Perkins (51.888) set a distant FTD in F125, with Doug Narby (55.612). FJA was won by Grant Miller (Yamaha, 60.648) over Alex Wicker (Briggs, 61.537). FJAL had 3 drivers, with Andrea Melancon (Briggs, 60.640), followed by Kelsi Wicker (Briggs, 61.529…what’s with all the 2nd place Wickers?) and Alexis Ledoux (Yamaha 70.791). FJB had 4 drivers, led by Ben Narby kart (Briggs, 61.079), then Christian Smith (Briggs, 75.631), Logan Breaux (kart 50cc, 79.073) and Julious Suydam (kart briggs, 94.463)

The Street Classes were well attended, though STS still hasn’t recovered from the house-cleaning that Coughlin/Wliey did a few years ago. William Hall was the lone STS driver, (Impreza, 62.081). STS2 is the new STS now, with four drivers led by a hungover Kerry Coughlin (C, 58.271). Co-driver Chris Hebert (C, 59.007) also drove Kerry’s Miata for a second place finish. Troy Marcella, (C, 62.747) ran his work-in-progress CRX to third place, followed by Joe Dloniak (63.187). STU saw Jimmy Jumonville (D)debut his new (formerly Patrick’s) black Evo to a 60.050 run for a win over Patrick Harris (D, 60.480) and Jon Stoute (STI, 70.524). In STX, Barry Booker (RRR, R32) pulled out a stunning 57.609 second run for the overall PAX win, while co-driver Paul Carrig (RRR, R32, 59.587) had cone trouble. Connie Booker (RRR, R32) took STXL unopposed with a 61.225 run.

Street Modified had another exciting battle, with seven drivers competing. At the end of the day, Justin Victor (D) took his turbo 240SX to 57.834 run over Justin Hobart (S, 57.893) and his Mustang with just a 0.060 second margin. James Shaw (C, Civic, 60.096) took third, followed by Odell Lavigne (Evo, 62.342), Chris Genovese (MCS, 63.228), Charles Genovese (MCS, 63.919), Jared Bell (STI, 64.526). SM2 was won by Wei-an Chen (61.484) in his 350Z.

Over, not a bad day for Delta drivers, despite being in the heart of Sowela Country. Six class wins and 10 drivers. Thanks to all the Delta members who made it, and thanks to Sowela for hosting a challenging event.